Music discoveries: Veronica Falls

Retro is in these days — vintage looks, vintage music, vintage drinks (thank you, “Mad Men,” from the bottom of my Manhattan) and that's all well and good, but sometimes you have to wonder what people — particularly artists — are looking backward for. Are they doing it just to be cool, or are they actually looking for something.

The visuals are squarely '90s-music video influenced, and the sound is drenched in '60s pop. And yet, it all feels like a thoroughly modern portrait of a 21st-century teenage wasteland: wistful, bleak and despondent, but still, there's a sense where the song clings to a moment … not even a particularly good moment.

“Driving late at night,” sings vocalist-guitarist Roxanne Clifford, “I let you listen to the music you like/ then I'll drop you home.” The song's persona holds on to what she has, even if, from the outside, it seems like very little. Driving late at night,” she sings, “It's all right.” But we don't believe her. We know from her tone that it won't be. And if we're a little older, we know from experience. The song, after all, is called “Teenage.”

Veronica Falls captures that desperation with near-pitch-perfect alacrity, and the dream pop sound and retro visuals give the video a sense of timelessness: This could be a portrait of a teenager in any era. And maybe that's the point. In any case, it's a captivating, even unsettling little song, from a band that continues to impress. (Victor D. Infante)